LOS ANGELES – A Burbank couple suspected of being the masterminds behind a Medicare scheme that took in $5.8 million in two years was arrested today on multiple counts of money laundering, tax fraud and other charges, the District Attorney’s office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Albert MacKenzie with the Fraud Interdiction Program said Sarkis Musoyan, 37 (dob 9-27-67), and his wife, Azatui Dilboyan, 37 (dob 3-31-68), were arrested at their Burbank home by investigators with the D.A.’s Bureau of Investigation.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer today launched a crackdown on rip offs of the taxpayer-funded Medi-Cal program, announcing he will offer up to a $1,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of providers of health care services and goods who defraud the system.

“This is a triple crime,” said Lockyer. “The money could be used for people who are truly ill and count on Medi-Cal as their only source of health care. Second, people are getting medical procedures they don’t need and putting themselves at risk. And taxpayers’ money is being wasted at a time when the need is great and dollars are precious.”

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Sound familiar? This problem has been in the news before. It was exposed by ABC Primetime Live in March 2004. Now Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans have filed a civil lawsuit accusing clinics in Southern California of using runners to recruit many employees from a single workplace to received over-priced and unnecessary services in return for cash.

“Investigators believe that at least $10 million has been drained from a system whose costs are already harming our economy.” Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi

William Origel, Rebecca Benedict, and Robin Barney were charged with felony counts of insurance fraud, grand theft, and practicing medicine without certification. Origel is the owner of Med-1 Medical Center, P.C., and Unique Healthcare Management, Inc. Origel, with help from Bendict and Barney allegedly over-billed workers’ compensation and auto insurance carriers for services never rendered, services not medically necessary, and for services beyond the scope of their licensed authority to perform.

Are pharmaceutical companies hiding important information that the FDA should see? In addition to this article about missing documents, there has been a lot of attention given lately to possible links between Prozac and suicide. The New York Times Magazine recently featured a cover-story about anti-depressants and links to teenage suicide. There are going to be lawsuits over this for years to come.

Gambro US to pay $355 mln in fraud case - Gambro Healthcare US, Lakewood, Colo., said it will pay $355 mln to settle civil and criminal charges stemming from illegal relationships with doctors and pharmaceutical companies in an alleged decade-long fraud scheme that began in 1991. [Healthcare Fraud News]

The settlement resolves civil liabilities from alleged kickbacks paid to physicians, false statements made to obtain payment for unnecessary services, and payments made to Gambro Supply, a sham DMEcompany.